CURRENT MISSION

Gathering artists and thinkers to create a productive and challenging Bohemian paradise

ABOUT ME

I am a writer and a teaching artist and co-founder of The School of Making Thinking-- an experimental school / summer artist residency program based in upstate NY.

This year I've been living in Austin, TX. It's my first time living outside the Northeast (I grew up in NJ, went to college in Boston, and then lived in Brooklyn for 4 years).

I am playful and imaginative when I am full of energy, and I am quiet and reflective when my energy is low.

I ride my bike 6 miles to work every day up and down the busy roads of Austin's Texas hill country. I practice yoga, I grow sprouts on my window sill, and I have a restlessness that is difficult to explain. I have a feeling that everything is very temporary.

I love to read novels & non-fiction, I love theater, I love stories. I love to be swept up in the personalities of other people. I am curious about other people, and I often ask very direct questions of acquaintances and complete strangers. People often forgive me for being inappropriately curious because I have a radiant smile.

My boyfriend Aaron & I started the School of Making Thinking together in 2011. This year we've been working as servers at restaurants (he at "Mother's Cafe & Garden", me at "Olive & June"), and planning our summer program with great anticipation. I am 27 and he is 29.

Aaron is an improvisational musician, a kinetic philosopher, and a benevolent performance artist. He will climb a tree and sing for the passersby-- playing his accordion among the branches. He will wear bright colors and plaid hats, and women's socks and he will start conversations with people on the street. He will make proclamations from his bicycle, he will address animals in their own languages. He will sing opera in parking garages, he will replace small talk with big talk. He will accept free samples of anything, anytime anywhere. He will cook you the best omelet you've ever had in your life!

We are taking a little trip to New Orleans and we're looking for a clean, friendly place to rest our heads for one night.

PHILOSOPHY

Approximate ideal conditions.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

When I first moved to Austin with my boyfriend, we didn't have a place to live. We were SO grateful to our couchsurfing hosts, William & Camille for hosting us an entire week and making us feel so welcome.

In 2010, I took a greyhound bus from NYC to San Francisco and enjoyed some sweet couchsurfing hospitality in Denver along the way. It was so cool to drop down into a city where I'd never been and pretend that I'd been friends with my host for years. (And it was much more memorable than staying with my relatives!)

Interests

I am interested in annexing the minds of vibrant, creative people. This is how I view collaboration. It's a way of having more than one brain.

I am interested in names-- the sound of a name, the character a name conveys, the origins of naming...

I'm interested in strange diets, difficult-to-imagine food combinations, learning other people's favorite recipes.

Eavesdropping.

• animals
• writing
• singing
• theater
• performing arts
• dining
• cooking
• recipes
• yoga
• gardening
• music
• opera
• cycling
• languages
• philosophy

Music, Movies, and Books

This American Life, Radiolab, the Moth, Autotune the News, 30 Rock, Arrested Development, Flight of the Conchords, Amelie, Micmacs, Eternal Sunshine, essays of Truman Capote, E.B. White, Michael Pollan & David Foster Wallace, novels: The Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, 2666 by Roberto Bolano, A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, Invitation to a Beheading by Nabokov

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Took a greyhound bus trip from NYC to San Francisco. In Illinois, I had a 3-hour conversation with a young man who had just left a monastery in New England after living as a monk for 7 years. Deep into our talk, he reached toward my face as if he could see right inside my soul and wanted to touch it-- and asked me if he could clean my glasses. I laughed and felt good.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Netherlands, United States